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L'HE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



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PERCY MACKAYE 



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WORKS BY PERCY MACKAYE 



THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS. A ComedI 

JEANNE D'ARC. A Tragedy. 

SAPPHO AND PHAON. A Tragedy. 

FENRIS THE WOLF. A Tragedy. 

A GARLAND TO SYLVIA. A Dramatic 

-RiEYERIE 

THE SCARECROW. A Tragedy of the 
Ludicrous. 

YANKEE FANTASIES. Five One-Act Plays. 
MATER. An American Study in Comedy. 
ANTI-MATRIMONY. A Satirical Comedy. 
TO-MORROW. A Play in Three Acts. 
A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. A Romance op, 

the Orient. 
THE IMMIGRANTS. A Lyric Drama. 



SAINT LOUIS. A Civic Masque. 

SANCTUARY. A Bird Masque. 

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP. A Civic Ritual. 



THE SISTINE EVE, and Other Poems. 
URIEL, and Other Poems. 
LINCOLN. A Centenary Ode. 
THE PRESENT HOUR. 



THE PLAYHOUSE AND THE PLAY. 

THE CIVIC THEATRE. 

A SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR. 



DRAMAS 



MASQUES 



POEMS 



ESS A YS 



AT ALL BOOKSELLERS 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



THE M ACM ILL AN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE 

NEW CITIZENSHIP 



A CIVIC RITUAL 

DEVISED FOR PLACES OF PUBLIC 
MEETING IN AMERICA 



BY 

PEECY MACKAYE 



Neto gttfe 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1915 

All rights reserved 



COPYKIGHT, 1915, 

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1915. 



Nottoootr press 
J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 




nr.T 28 1915 
©CM416110 

It* . I ■ 



PREFACE 



The object of the ceremony here de- 
scribed is to provide a pioneer step in 
helping to create an appropriate national 
ritual of American Citizenship. With 
this object in view, its form is designed 
to meet two important requirements of 
a ceremony adapted to the public gather- 
ing of newly naturalized citizens: first, 
to symbolize to eye and ear — within 
brief time-limits — the main historical 
significances of the living tradition of 
American liberty; and secondly, to in- 
troduce into this historical background 
the new significances of Americanization 
to-day. 

The basis of our American liberties is 
5 



PREFACE 



democracy; the basis of democracy is a 
citizenship consecrated to its aims. If, 
then, we desire our liberties to endure and 
grow, must we not take all needful steps 
to welcome and consecrate all newcomers 
to the vows of American Citizenship ? 

Are we doing so ? What are the facts ? 

In the Appendix of this volume 1 the 
reader may examine a brief table of im- 
migration statistics, furnished by the 
authorities at Ellis Island. 

From the figures given he will see that 
there are in America to-day at least 
15,000,000 foreign-born white persons, of 
whom more than 3,000,000, over 21 
years of age, are wholly unnaturalized. 
Of these 15,000,000, save for what small 
percentage are obtaining any real civic 
education in the schools — the vast 
1 See page 89. 



PREFACE 



7 



majority are essentially out of touch with 
the basic traditions of liberty and democ- 
racy for which Washington and Lincoln 
labored. 

More than one-sixth of our American 
population not yet Americanized ! 

Yet, in a time of unexampled world 
crisis, these millions are expected to feel 
for the Stars and Stripes a spirit of devo- 
tion, to which if need be they must sacri- 
fice their lives. 

In the face of these portentous facts, 
can any American educator, statesman or 
artist seek to render a public service 
more timely than to help mould this 
groping chaos of citizenship into struc- 
tural forms for the harmonious expression 
of American ideals ? 

The present attempt is the merest of 
beginnings. In its very nature a true 



8 



PREFACE 



civic ritual must be a cooperative expres- 
sion, evolved by manifold social tests, 
aspirations and inventions. But the in- 
centive to make a definite beginning is 
urgent. So, when last May I was asked 
by the Citizenship Day Committee, ap- 
pointed by the Mayor of New York City, 
to suggest a form of ceremony suitable 
for observance by newly naturalized 
citizens in the City College Stadium, I 
was very glad to make the attempt. 

The first intended plan of celebration, 
as proposed by Mr. Frederic C. Howe, 
Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis 
Island, was to hold a meeting of welcome 
to the new citizens in the stadium, or in 
the Madison Square Garden, on July 4, 
1915, and for that I submitted sugges- 
tions which were accepted by the Com- 
mittee and form the basis of the ritual 



PREFACE 



9 



here set forth. The time, however, 
proving too short for the needful prepara- 
tions, the meeting was postponed to a 
later date, when it is proposed to give 
the first test of the ceremony. For this 
the Committee, under Chairmanship of 
Mr. Adolph Lewisohn, are — at the 
date of this preface — taking preliminary 
steps. 

But though this civic ritual, as here 
described, is intended for use in the City 
College Stadium in New York, it is not 
intended to be limited to such use. The 
need it seeks to fill being a national one, 
not merely a local, it is designed to be at 
the service of whatever American com- 
munity, committee, school, or civic so- 
ciety may desire to use it. To secure 
permission for such use, the committee 
or persons desiring to use it should first 



10 



PREFACE 



communicate with the author in care of I 
the publishers of this volume. j 

As here set forth the ceremony may 
seem to demand an ample architectural 
setting, large-scale mass effects, and 
expert stage management. These, of i 
course, are necessary requirements for 
its production in a large stadium and yj 
for its greatest impressiveness ; but if 
these are impracticable to secure in local 
cases, they may be judiciously modified 
or in good measure dispensed with. 

Just as a masque or play may — 
within limits — be adapted to a scale j 
elaborate or simple, so with this ritual. 
My play, "The Canterbury Pilgrims," 
for instance, which was produced in 
1909, as a pageant at Gloucester, Massa- 
chusetts, with 1500 participants before 
an audience of 25,000 people, has often 



PREFACE 



11 



been performed by 15 or 20 of the Co- 
burn Players before intimate audiences 
on college campuses, or on town hall 
platforms. 

Thus, in this ceremony, the massive 
background of architecture may, if neces- 
sary, be simply suggested by the hang- 
ing folds of curtains, and the whole scale 
of its production may be adapted to the 
practical requirements of any normal 
place of public meeting. 

Indeed the form of the ritual de- 
veloped itself in my mind from the 
simple precedents of the old American 
town-meeting : above on a platform, the 
presiding chairman; and speeches by 
citizens from the floor. 1 

1 To these two planes a third plane [that of 
the ground circle and civic altar] is necessarily 
added by the conditions of outdoor production. 



12 



PREFACE 



Since the days of Samuel Adams and 
Patrick Henry down through Daniel 
Webster to the present time, the Ameri- 
can citizen speaking in public to his 
fellow citizens has developed the art 
most indigenous to our democracy. In 
their great moments of leadership, these 
citizen speakers have been the lay 
prophets of our civic religion. Such 
Lincoln was at Gettysburg. As such it 
becomes an inspiring task for the grow- 
ing art of community drama to relate 
these individual spokesmen to the large 
symbolic aspects of our national life by 
means of a pertinent and revealing 
pageantry: in short, to evolve an au- 
thentic civic ritual from the Puritan 
simplicities of a Yankee town-meeting. 

This revealing task of art becomes 
ever more important as our constrained 



PREFACE 



13 



town-meeting becomes crowded and over- 
whelmed by the multitudinous desires 
and colorful temperaments of the world 
races. Such is the immense task of 
this very small beginning. The means 
of experiment I have tried are these : 

To impress on the new citizens briefly 
and intensely the meanings of American 
citizenship, time and space in my ritual 
are epitomized to their main significances. 

Thus the presiding chairman of our 
American centuries, past and to come, 
is fittingly the Spirit of Liberty, and the 
citizen speakers are chosen not from 
one era but out of the total tradition of 
our liberties : from the past only as 
their public utterances still survive in 
present usefulness, and from the present 
only as their utterances take rank with 
the great traditions of American ideals. 



14 



PREFACE 



Here, then, at the altar of our English- 
speaking tradition of liberty gather the 
manifold cultures, languages, arts and 
crafts of all peoples in the persons of 
our new citizens. And here is the 
most inspiring occasion for revealing the 
multiform meanings of America, and 
for giving scope to those enlightened 
ideals of the new citizenship which stand 
not for the levelling away of all world- 
cultures to leave bare an American 
mediocrity, but for the welcoming of all 
world-cultures to create an American 
excellence : not for a national melting- 
pot to reduce all precious heritages to a 
cold puddle of shapeless ore, but for a 
national studio to perpetuate them in 
new creative forms of plastic life. 

For, as President Wilson has recently 
said in speaking to these new citizens 



PREFACE 



15 



of ours, they are welcome here from 
their foreign lands when they come 
"bringing what is best of their spirit" 
— and that best comprises the ancient 
arts and folk cultures of the world which 
our ignorance or apathy have too long 
allowed to wither here, when they 
might make us the richest of the nations 
in spiritual treasures. 

Thus in this ceremony, by their 
racial symbols of color and dance, these 
contributing cultures must be revealed 
to the eyes, and by their native hymns 
and folk songs — to the ears of that 
composite mind, the American audience, 
in whose ritual the new citizens are them- 
selves participants. 

For these essential reasons the national 
groups, the native hymns, dances and 
responses, are used in the ritual, so that 



16 



PREFACE 



there may be borne in upon all of us 
Americans a sense of those contributing 
influences upon our national life, and 
of our responsibility to conserve for 
our children the still living beauty, the 
ancient dignity, the noble joy and 
vitality of those folk cultures. 

One apparent omission in the features 
of this ritual calls for comment in this 
preface. Since the implications of citi- 
zenship are not limited to male citizens, 
it may perhaps be asked by advocates 
of equal suffrage why all special allusion 
to woman and her struggle for freedom 
is omitted from a ritual of citizenship. 

The question, I think, is pertinent, 
but it contains its own answer. It is 
for the very reason that women, equally 
with men, in justice "are and of a right 
ought to be free and independent" 



PREFACE 



17 



citizens, that no special feature is re- 
quired for woman in a ritual of citizen- 
ship. 

In those states where women have 
already secured political equality, the 
words and forms of this ritual will serve 
their use equally with men ; and in other 
states, until such equality is attained, 
no partial feature of compromise could 
— with justice to the great cause of 
equal rights — be inserted in a ritual 
presided over by the Spirit of Liberty. 
Early in the conferences of the New 
York Citizenship Committee [a majority 
of whom, including myself, are strongly 
in favor of equal suffrage], the introduc- 
tion of a special woman's feature was 
considered and at first advocated, but 
afterwards rejected for the above reasons, 
and for the reason also that for those of 
c 



18 



PREFACE 



the Committee who sincerely disbelieve 
in equal suffrage the introduction of 
this controversial element would destroy 
that spirit of civic harmony which it is 
the purpose of the ritual to further and 
create. 

One other feature — some form of 
duologue and responses for the native- 
born First Voters — has not been given 
emphasis in the ritual as here described 
for its use by the New York Committee, 
since for that purpose the emphasis is 
necessarily upon the foreign-born new 
citizens; but the dedication of native- 
born voters to the rights and duties of 
their citizenship is none the less of real 
moment, and might well deserve the 
main emphasis of a pageant ceremony. 

If the reader or writer of this preface 
were a man who, born in a foreign land, 



PREFACE 



19 



had been drawn by dreams of ideal 
liberty and opportunity to this new 
world, and here, having counted the days 
till the dawn of that great day of his 
becoming an American Citizen, had 
braved the red tape of government 
routine to hold at last in his hand the 
long desired papers of his naturalization, 
— these are some of the phrases which 
would first meet his glance, printed on 
the envelope containing his certificate : 

"Whoever shall falsely make, forge, or 
counterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely 
made, forged or counterfeited . . . 

"Whoever shall engrave, or cause or 
procure to be engraved, or assist in engrav- 
ing, any plate . . . designed for the print- 
ing of a certificate of citizenship . . . 

"Whoever, when applying to be ad- 
mitted a citizen, shall . . . falsely make, 
forge or counterfeit any oath, notice, affi- 
davit, order, record, signature . . . 



20 



PREFACE 



"Whoever shall use or attempt to use, 
or shall aid, assist or participate in the use 
of any certificate of citizenship, knowing 
the same to be forged, counterfeit, or ante- 
dated ... or, whoever, without lawful 
excuse, shall have in his possession any 
blank certificate . . . with the intent un- 
lawfully to use the same . . . 

" . . . shall be fined not more than one 
thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more 
than five years, or both." 

Now without doubt it is a wise and 
necessary provision of law that those 
who abuse the rights and privileges of 
our citizenship should be dealt with 
correctively, for the abuse of citizenship 
is the abuse of that which every citizen 
ought to feel to be a sacred thing. Yet 
it may well be doubted whether the 
emphasizing of legal penalties and taboos 
is the most effective and gracious way 
of instilling a feeling of the sacredness 



PREFACE 



21 



of any right or privilege into the hearts 
and minds of human beings, or of in- 
spiring them with devoted confidence in 
the makers of the penalties. 

Rather it would appear that a wiser 
emphasis will take better account of the 
psychology of our new citizens, by recog- 
nizing that, to the great majority, the 
hour of their naturalization is itself a 
sacred hour, which calls on our part, not 
first for a warning against their possible 
criminal tendencies, but first for a wel- 
come to the honest aspirations which 
they undoubtedly bring to quicken our 
own. 

So, for the sake as much of the native- 
born as of the alien-born, some more 
helpful and better organized way of 
welcoming our new citizens than has 
hitherto pertained is an urgent need. 



22 



PREFACE 



If this civic ritual shall serve to em- 
phasize and meet that need even a little, 
it will serve the object for which it has 
been devised. 

PERCY MACKAYE. 

Cornish, New Hampshire 
August, 1915. 



NOTE 



As stated in the Preface, this ritual 
"is designed to be at the service of 
whatever American community, com- 
mittee, school, or civic society may 
desire to use it." 

It can be used on a simple or elab- 
orate scale. 

For permission to use it publicly 
communication must be made direct 
to the author, in care of the publishers. 



23 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



PERSONS IN THE RITUAL* 

SYMBOLICAL PEBSONS 

Liberty (a man). 

America (a woman). 

The Forty-eight States (child dancers) . 

The Thirteen Original States (girl dancers) . 

HISTOBICAL PEBSONS 
Thomas Jefferson. 

The Signers of the Declaration of Independence 

(fifty-six men) . 
Alexander Hamilton. 
Benjamin Franklin. 
George Washington. 
Abraham Lincoln. 

MODEBJST PABTICIPANTS 

The New Citizens of the United States : 

Their Group Leaders (men, women, and 
children) . 

Their Folk Dancers (men, women and 

children) . 
Their Individual Spokesmen (men). 
Woodrow Wilson, through a Citizen Representa- 
tive. 

* Those who speak as individuals, or read addresses, are 
indicated by italics. 

25 



ORDER OF PROCEDURE 



THE SCENE 

The physical place of the pageant- 
ceremony here described is the chief 
public meeting place of any American 
community, so arranged in its setting 
as to suggest that symbolic place of 
American citizenship which is not 
bounded by merely local or temporal 
surroundings. 

As explained in the note of introduc- 
tion, the ceremony may be used indoors 
or out-of-doors, by day or by night, on 
a scale simple or elaborate. As here 
set forth, however, its features are 
adapted to the large scale purposes of a 
community gathering held in an out- 
door stadium at night. 

27 



28 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



The background of the stage is a 
high painted wall of wood, serving 
structurally as an outdoor sounding 
board for the voices and music, and 
pictorially [but not literally] to suggest 
[below] the old colonial interior and 
[above] the balcony exterior fa$ade 
of Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 
Through this wall three great doors, 
[at left, right and centre] give entrance, 
below, upon the stage platform, and one 
smaller door, above, gives entrance upon 
the balcony, directly over the great door 
at centre. 

On either side of the wall, the back- 
ground is extended by wings, which 
reach to the end of the stadium, shutting 
off the outside surroundings. 

In each of these wings a great door 
gives entrance upon the circular ground 



THE NEW. CITIZENSHIP 29 



space before the stage, to which broad 
steps lead up at centre. At left and 
right of the steps — their first rows 
forming parts of the arc of the circle — 
are seated the band musicians and choral 
singers. 

At the centre of the ground circle — 
serving as the heart of the group cere- 
monies on the ground plane — stands 
the Civic Altar, a simple low square 
structure, encompassed by wide steps. 

THE ACTION 

When the ceremony begins, the ground 
and stage are in darkness. Only above, 
a ruddy glow bursts from the balcony 
door, through which a boy Trumpeter 
comes forth and blows three peals upon 
his trumpet. With the final peal the 
lower plane now first appears in light, 



30 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 

revealing the stage, set with the high 
backed colonial chairs of Independence 
Hall, ranged symmetrically about a 
table [at centre], on which lies a great 
scroll. 

FIRST GROUP MOVEMENT 

Here, through the central door, enter 
the fifty-six Signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, dressed in the cos- 
tumes of 1776, who seat themselves in 
the chairs. Last among these come 
Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, 
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and 
Thomas Jefferson, who take places at 
the table, Jefferson in the centre. 

SECOND SUMMONS 

At a sign from Jefferson, a Boy Page 
goes at back to a bell-rope, which hangs 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 31 



from beneath the balcony, and pulls it 
[between pauses] as many times as there 
are numbers of groups represented in 
the processional pageant which now 
enters. At each pull of the rope a deep 
bell sounds, each stroke giving the 
signal cue for the entrance of a separate 
procession of the new citizens. 

SECOND GROUP MOVEMENT 
At this signal now appear from the 
two wing doorways the Chief Marshal 
and two Assistant Marshals of the New 
Citizens. They are followed by the first 
group Leaders, each comprising a man, 
woman and child in national folk cos- 
tume. Of these the man carries an 
[unfurled] flag, 1 the woman a symbol of 

1 One of the Leaders carries also [furled] an 
American flag, to be unfurled, later in the 
ceremony, from the audience. See page 68. 



32 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



the arts and crafts, and the child a musical 
instrument distinctive of the group rep- 
resented. Assuming the ceremony to 
be held on Columbus Day, the first 
group to enter may appropriately be 
the Italian Group. 

Entering to the music of their national 
hymn [played by the band musicians, 
sung by the chorus and by the group 
themselves in their native language], 
the Italian Leaders move forward from 
both doors, followed by the New Citizens 
from Italy dressed in their usual modern 
garb. 1 These are followed by the Folk 

1 Though of necessity dressed in modern 
garb as Americans, each citizen may appro- 
priately carry some colorful symbol both of 
his native land and of his new country such 
as may be designated by the director of the 
ceremony. With time and usage, and for 
purposes of ensemble harmony of color and 
civic feeling, some simple and distinctive sym- 



THE NEW -CITIZENSHIP 33 



Dancers of the group in national costume, 
forming the rear. 1 Passing in procession 
around the ground circle the two Leaders 
of the group converge and meet, centre, 
at the foot of the stadium, where one 
group of Leaders conducts them to their 
reserved seats, and takes its stand there 
with the national flag and emblems, while 
the other group of Leaders, followed by 
the Folk Dancers, moves to the ground 

bolic overgarment also may well come to be 
adopted, such as that worn by the audiences 
of the Redwood Grove Masques of the Bo- 
hemian Club of San Francisco in their annual 
outdoor festival. In such wise some apt and 
revealing form of American national costume 
may hopefully be developed. 

1 As the final group, there may enter the 
group of First Voters, young native-born 
citizens, whose leaders may be dressed in 
symbolic garb of the American colors [like the 
Chief Marshal and his Assistants], or in 
academic gown, with the hood lined with red, 
white and blue. 

D 



34 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



circle and takes its place at an assigned 
position near the Altar. 

SECOND GROUP MOVEMENT: 
VARIATIONS 

In like manner, group by national 
group, the other New Citizens enter sing- 
ing and marching to the hymns 1 of their 
native lands, until all [Russians, Scandi- 
navians, Poles, Germans, Greeks, Hun- 
garians, etc.] are assembled. Thus one 

1 These hymns [as may seem desirable] 
may either be the national hymns, or the folk 
and religious hymns of the different peoples. 
At the present time of war, the latter are 
probably to be preferred ; for example 
"Heilige Nacht" instead of 4 'Die Waeht am 
Rheim." The essential object is, of course, 
to represent, through symbols of eye and ear, 
the distinctive national cultures contributed 
to our country as the common heritage of 
Americans, an object which is indeed the 
fundamental aim and raison d'etre of this 
ceremony. 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 35 



half of their costumed Leaders, together 
with their Folk Dancers, stand massed 
in color with their flags and emblems in 
relation to the Altar, while the other half, 
stationed with their standards in the 
seats, give distinctive token of the Folk 
Groups, who as a whole form a partici- 
pating audience of American Citizens. 

THIRD SUMMONS 

In the upper plane, the ruddy light 

streams again from the balcony, where 

now two Boy Trumpeters entering peal 

their trumpets thrice, then stand on 

either side, as — clothed in luminous 

red — the Spirit of Liberty 1 comes forth 

1 Liberty may be impersonated by a man 
or woman, but preferably by a man, especially 
for purposes of a large-scale outdoor gather- 
ing, where a man's voice is by far the more 
impressive. If a woman, her voice should be 
both mellow and resonant and not high-pitched. 



36 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



and, lifting a glowing gavel, strikes it in 
flame on the rostrum where his right 
hand falls. 



FIRST PROCLAMATION 
LIBERTY 

[Speaks with resonant voice to the assembled 
people.] 

Citizens of America ! In this place 
of our communion, dedicated to my 
birth and growth in the new world, I — 
the Spirit of Liberty — revive in you 
the memories and hopes of a people con- 
secrated to freedom through democracy. 

On the fourth day of July in Philadel- 
phia, one hundred and forty years ago, 1 
as then I spoke with the words of Thomas 

1 The precise number of years will, of 
course, be modified according to the year of 
the ceremony. 

37 



38 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



Jefferson, my servant, hear now his still 
living presence speak to you ! 

[The light, disappearing above from the bal- 
cony, now illumines below Thomas 
Jefferson, who rises from the table, and 
unrolling the document scroll before 
him, reads from it aloud to the listening 
Founders of the Republic and the 
newly gathered Citizens.] 



FIRST ADDRESS AND RESPONSES 

JEFFERSON 
[Reads with fervent directness and simplicity.] 

In Congress : July 4th, 1776. 

When, in the course of human events, 
it becomes necessary for one people to 
dissolve the political bands which have 
connected them with another, and to 
assume among the powers of the earth a 
separate and equal station to which the 
Laws of Nature and of Nature's God 
entitle them, a decent respect to the 
opinion of mankind requires that they 
should declare the causes which impel 
them to separation. . . . 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
39 



40 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



that all men are created equal, that they 
are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain unalienable Rights, that among these 
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of 
Happiness; that to secure these Rights 
Governments are instituted among men, 
deriving their just powers from the con- 
sent of the Governed : That whenever 
any form of Government becomes de- 
structive of these ends, it is the Right of 
the People to alter or abolish it, and 
to institute new Government, laying its 
foundation on such principles and or- 
ganizing its power in such form as to 
them shall seem most likely to affect 
their safety and happiness. . . . 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that 
Governments long established should 
not be changed for light and transient 
causes. . . . But when a long train of 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 41 

abuses and usurpations, pursuing in- 
variably the same objects, evinces a 
design to reduce them under absolute 
Despotism, it is their right, it is their 
duty, to throw off such Government, 
and to provide new Guards for their 
future security. 

Such has been the patient sufferance 
of these Colonies. . . . 

We, therefore, the Representatives of 
the United States of America, in General 
Congress Assembled, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the World for the 
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the 
Name, and by Authority of the good 
People of these Colonies, solemnly pub- 
lish and declare, That these United 
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be 
Free and Independent States. . . . And 
for the support of this declaration . . . 



42 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 

we mutually pledge to each other our 
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. 

[Concluding, Jefferson pauses and says :] 
Gentlemen of the Congress, are you 
ready to sign this Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ? 

THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESS 

[Rising and responding with ardor.] 
We are. 

JEFFERSON 
[With gesture again to the Boy Page.] 
Let, then, the Bell of Liberty announce 
our act to the peoples of the World. 

[Turning to John Hancock, Jefferson hands 
him a quill.] 

You, Sir, begin. 

[ Then with simple feeling.] 
God Save the United States of 
America ! 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 43 



THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESS 
[Responding in like manner.] 
God Save the United States of 
America ! 

[At these words the bell-rope at back is pulled 
again, the deep bell rings forth tumult- 
ously, while voices of unseen people are 
heard cheering and shouting gladly " God 
Save the Republic ! ? ' Meantime the Mem- 
bers of Congress come forward in groups to 
the document on the table and, as each 
takes the quill to sign, the Clerk of the 
Congress — standing near, in the fore- 
ground of the stage — may read aloud his 
name, each in the order of his signing.] 1 

1 John Hancock, Josiah Bartlett, William 
Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samnel Adams, 
John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge 
Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, 
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Francis 
Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John 
Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, 
Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin 
Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, 



44 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



[When the last one has signed and all are re- 
turning to their seats, Jefferson lifts the 
document, rolls it again as a scroll and 
places it before him. 

[As he does so the bell ceases and a great set- 
piece of fireworks bursts from the ground 
circle beside the Altar, while the musicians 
and chorus play and sing one verse of 
"America" joined in by the assembled 
citizens.] 

FIRST CHORUS 

My Country, 'tis of thee, 

Sweet land of liberty, 

George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, 
James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, 
George Read, Thomas M'Keen, Samuel 
Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles 
Carroll, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas 
Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter 
Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Hey- 
ward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middle- 
ton, Button Gwinnett, Lymna Hall, George 
Walton. 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 45 



Of thee I sing : 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrims' pride, 
From every mountain side, 

Let freedom ring ! 

[As the fireworks fade in darkness, the balcony 
becomes illumined. There at both ends 
the Boy Trumpeters blow their trumpets, 
and the Spirit of Liberty speaks.] 

LIBERTY 
Citizens ! In support of this Declara- 
tion of Independence, my spirit fought and 
triumphed through Revolution, wherein 
foremost I inspired the majestic fortitude 
of George Washington, your First Presi- 
dent, and your great Foster-Father. 

[Through the right 1 door below, Washington 
enters in faint light and comes forward 
to the right front of the stage.] 

1 The audience's left. 



46 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



On the Seventeenth of September, 1796, 
after five and forty years of public service 
to his country, he left for you his message 
of Farewell. Hold it now in your re- 
membrance ! 



SECOND ADDRESS AND RE- 
SPONSES 



Fading again from the balcony 1 the light now 
becomes stronger on the face and form of 
Washington. 

[Clad in a military cloak of deep blue, he 
speaks to the new citizens, with an old- 
time dignity, made direct and modern by 
the ardor of his deep feeling.] 

WASHINGTON 
Friends and Fellow-Citizens : 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty 
with every ligament of your hearts, 

1 When the ceremony is held at night [as 
assumed in the description here given] Liberty 
— having finished speaking — disappears for 
the time being by the mere removal of artificial 
light. By day, of course, this could not be 
effected. By day, therefore, between his 

47 



48 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



no recommendation of mine is necessary 
to confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government, which con- 
stitutes you one people, is also now dear 
to you. It is justly so : for it is a main 
pillar in the edifice of your real indepen- 
dence, the support of your tranquillity 
at home, your peace abroad, of your 
safety ; of your prosperity ; of that very 
liberty, which you so highly prize. But 
it is easy to foresee, that from different 
causes much pains will be taken to weaken 
in your minds the conviction of this 
truth; so it is of infinite moment, that 
you should properly estimate the im- 

speeches, Liberty may either remain in the 
balcony or [preferably] make exit after speak- 
ing and return at the peal blown by the 
Trumpeters, which recurs before each of his 
speeches, to arrest the attention of the out- 
door audience. 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 49 



mense value of your national Union to 
your happiness ; that you should watch 
for its preservation with jealous anxiety ; 
indignantly frowning upon every attempt 
to alienate any portion of our country 
from the rest. 

For this you have every inducement 
of sympathy and interest. From union 
you must derive an exemption from those 
broils and wars between themselves 
which so frequently afflict neighboring 
countries. Hence, likewise, you will 
avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments, which, under 
any form of government, are inauspicious 
to liberty, and which are particularly 
hostile to republican liberty. 

In contemplating the causes which 
may disturb our Union, it is of serious 
concern that there should be any geo- 

E 



50 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 

graphical discriminations, Northern and 
Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence 
designing men may endeavor to excite 
a belief, that there is a real difference of 
local interests and views. You cannot 
shield yourselves too much against the 
heart-burnings, which spring from these 
misrepresentations; they tend to render 
alien to each other those who ought to 
be bound together by fraternal affection. 

The basis of our political system is the 
right of the people to make and to alter 
their constitution. But the very idea 
of the power and the right of the people 
to establish government presupposes the 
duty of every individual to obey the es- 
tablished government. 

All obstructions to executing the laws, 
therefore, are of fatal tendency. They 
serve to organize faction; to put in the 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 51 



place of the delegated will of the nation, 
the will of a party, often a small but 
artful minority of the community. 

Promote, as an object of primary im- 
portance, the diffusion of knowledge. 
For in proportion as the structure of a 
government gives force to public opinion, 
it is essential that public opinion should 
be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength 
and security, cherish public credit. One 
method is, to use it sparingly by cultivat- 
ing peace, but remembering also that 
timely disbursements to prepare for 
danger prevent much greater disburse- 
ments to repel it. 

Observe good faith and justice toward 
all nations. Cultivate peace and har- 
mony with all. It will be worthy of 
this free nation to give mankind the 



52 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



magnanimous and too novel example of 
a people always guided by an exalted 
justice. 

In such a plan, permanent antipathies 
against particular nations and passion- 
ate attachments for others should be 
excluded. The nation which indulges 
either is in some degree a slave. Antip- 
athy in one nation against another dis- 
poses each to be haughty and intractable, 
when trifling occasions of dispute occur. 
So likewise, a passionate attachment of 
one nation to another, by the illusion of 
an imaginary common interest, in cases 
where no real common interest exists, 
betrays the one to participate in the 
quarrels of the other, without adequate 
justification. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, 
which to us have no relation or a very 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 53 



remote one. She must be engaged in 
frequent controversies, the causes of 
which are essentially foreign to our con- 
cerns. Hence, it must be unwise in us 
to implicate ourselves in her politics, 
her friendships, or enmities. 

If we remain one people, under an 
efficient government, the period is not 
far off, when we may defy material in- 
jury from external annoyance ; when 
the neutrality we may at any time re- 
solve upon will be scrupulously respected ; 
when belligerent nations will not lightly 
hazard giving us provocation; when we 
may choose peace or war, as our interest, 
guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Harmony with all nations is recom- 
mended by humanity and interest. But 
even our commercial policy should hold 
an impartial hand; neither seeking nor 



54 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



granting exclusive favors; diffusing by 
gentle means the streams of commerce, 
but forcing nothing ; constantly keeping 
in view, that there can be no greater 
error than to calculate upon real favors 
from nation to nation. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, 
these counsels of an old and affectionate 
friend, I dare not hope they will make 
the strong and lasting impression I 
could wish; that they will control the 
usual current of the passions, or prevent 
our nation from running the course, 
which has hitherto marked the destiny 
of nations. But, if I may even flatter 
myself, that they may be productive of 
some partial benefit ; that they will now 
and then recur to moderate the fury of 
party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs 
of foreign intrigue, to guard against the 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 55 

impostures of pretended patriotism ; this 
hope will be a full recompense for the 
solicitude I feel for your welfare. 

[As Washington concludes, the Chief Marshal 
from beside the civic Altar speaks to the 
Citizen Leaders.] 

THE CHIEF MARSHAL 
Remember the words of Washington ! 

THE LEADERS 
[Shout three times.] 
Washington ! 

[As Washington sits in a great chair on the 
right, the Spirit of Liberty, announced 
by the Trumpeters, speaks again from 
above.] 



THIRD PROCLAMATION 



LIBERTY 
Citizens ! Still once more through the 
years my spirit wrestled amidst you in 
mortal struggle for emancipation, wherein 
foremost I triumphed in the patient 
tenderness of Abraham Lincoln, your 
sixteenth President and your great elder 
brother. 

[Through the left door below, in faint light, 
Lincoln enters and comes forward to the 
left front of the stage.] 

On the nineteenth of November, 1863, 
remember his words on the battlefield 
of Gettysburg. 

[The balcony fades in darkness] 
56 



THIRD ADDRESS AND RESPONSES 



[Below, the light illumines the rugged face and 
tall figure of Lincoln. Clothed in suit of 
black with simple field cloak, he speaks 
to the New Citizens in tones of homely 
earnestness.] 

LINCOLN 
Fellow-Citizens : 

Fourscore and seven years ago our 
fathers brought forth upon this continent 
a new nation, conceived in liberty and 
dedicated to the proposition that all 
men are created equal. Now we are 
engaged in a great civil war, testing 
whether that nation, or any nation so 
conceived and so dedicated, can long en- 
dure. We are met on a great battlefield 
57 



58 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



of that war. We have come to dedicate 
a portion of that field, as a final resting- 
place for those who here gave their lives 
that that nation might live. It is alto- 
gether fitting and proper that we should 
do this. But, in a larger sense, we can- 
not dedicate — we cannot consecrate — 
we cannot hallow — this ground. The 
brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
here have consecrated it, far above our 
power to add or detract. The world 
will little note, nor long remember, what 
we say here, but it can never forget what 
they did here. It is for us the living, 
rather, to be dedicated here to the un- 
finished work which they who fought here 
so nobly advanced. It is rather for us 
to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us, — that from these 
honored dead we take increasing devo- 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 59 



tion to that cause for which they gave the 
last full measure of devotion — that we 
here highly resolve that these dead shall 
not have died in vain — that this nation, 
under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom — and that government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people, 
shall not perish from the earth. 

[As Lincoln concludes, the Chief Marshal 
from beside the Altar calls again to the 
Citizen Leaders.] 

THE CHIEF MARSHAL 
Long live the memory of Lincoln ! 

THE LEADERS 
[Shout three times.] 

Lincoln ! 



[Lincoln sits in a great chair on the left. 
Above the Trumpeter summons again the 
Spirit of Liberty, who speaks.] 



FOURTH PROCLAMATION 



LIBERTY 
Citizens ! Symbol of the people's 
government, your flag — wrought of the 
United stars of forty-eight States and 
the stripes of the first Thirteen — your 
flag unfurls on the altar dedicated to me. 

FIRST SYMBOLIC DANCE 1 

[While Liberty remains standing above in the 
light, to an ardent dance music there 
enter, from the wing doors, two groups of 
dancers. 

1 The technique and music for this dance 
have been devised and composed by Mary 
Porter Beegle and Arthur FarwelL By the 
creation of the flag is not meant the flag- 
pattern formation sometimes executed by 
school children. 

60 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 61 



From the right, forty-eight children in white 
tunics [the present States], bearing star- 
tipt wands, are led by America, a woman 
in garb of blue, Greek in simplicity. In 
her hand she bears a furled flag. 

From the left, thirteen girls in like garb [the 
original States] alternately in white and 
red, bear the streamers of red and 
white. 

Moving in rhythmic procession to the ground 
circle, they conjoin before the Altar, where 
America, mounting, stands holding the 
furled flag in the centre. 

Here they perform a dance symbolizing the 
creation of the American flag. By the 
movements of this dance the pulsing stars 
of the child dancers twinkling in shadowy 
glooms, the flying streamers of the girls 
fluttering through the varicolored light, 
mingle in a finale encircling closely the 
Altar, where America unfurls the silken 
stars and stripes of her flag in a flare of 
dawn radiance, just as the dancers, turn- 
ing swiftly, vanish in the dark whence 
they came. 



62 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



At this climax of dance movement and light, 
the music changes to strains of the Star- 
Spangled Banner, to which the chorus 
bursts forth in song.] 

SECOND HYMN 

THE CHORUS 

[Joined in by all the Citizens.] 

O say, can you see by the dawn's early 
light 

What so proudly we hailed at the twi- 
light's last gleaming : 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars 
through the perilous night 

O'er the ramparts we watched were so 
gallantly streaming : 

And the rockets' red glare 
The bombs bursting in air 

Gave proof through the night that our 
flag was still there ? 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 63 



The star-spangled banner, O long may it 

wave 

O'er the land of the free and the home of 
the brave ! 

[At the conclusion of this stanza of the hymn, 
America, who has held the flag, now 
plants it in the centre of the Altar, and 
herself descends. 

As she does so, one of the New Citizen Leaders, 
[an Italian x ] moves from his station in 
the ground circle toward the stage and 
ascends the central steps bearing the 
national flag of his group, which he 
raises toward the Spirit of Liberty, who 
looks down, lifting his hand in response 
to the salute.] 

1 For purposes of these printed directions, 
Columbus Day being assumed as the date of 
the ceremony, an Italian is selected as first 
spokesman of the new citizens. 



64 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



FIRST DUOLOGUE 

[With Folk Dances, Group Responses and 
Hymn.] 

THE NEW CITIZEN 
Liberty ! 

LIBERTY 
Who comes here ? 

CITIZEN 
A new Citizen of the Republic. 

LIBERTY 
What do you seek in the ancient pres- 
ence of its founders? 

CITIZEN 

The rights which they sought: Life, 
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

LIBERTY 
What do you pledge in support of 
these rights ? 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 65 



CITIZEN 

I pledge the same as they: my life, 
my fortune and my sacred honor. 

LIBERTY 
Do you make this vow alone, or repre- 
senting others ? 

CITIZEN 

[Pointing to his group.] 

I speak for these others, born in one 
Fatherland. 

LIBERTY 
How do these confirm you ? 

CITIZEN 

[Addressing his group in the ground circle 
and stadium.] 

Fellow citizens from . . . Italy . . . 
make answer ! 



66 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



THE MAN LEADER OF THE . . 
ITALIAN . . GROUP 

[Replies from stadium.] 

Viva America! Long live the United 

States of America ! 

THE . . . ITALIAN . . . GROUP 

[Following his words and his gesture to them.] 
Viva America! Long live the United 
States of America! 

CITIZEN 

[Turning again to the Spirit of Liberty.] 
You have heard them. 

LIBERTY 
Have you and they fulfilled all legal 
forms of citizenship ? 

CITIZEN 

We have. 

LIBERTY 
By what spiritual token do you con- 
secrate those forms of law ? 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 67 



CITIZEN 

By token of the ancient culture of our 
. . . Italian . . . people, which we con- 
tribute to the joy of our new land. In 
the treading of this dance 1 of our folk 
we offer our vows at your altar. 

[He signs to the group of . . . Italian . . . 
folk dancers.] 

THE FOLK DANCERS 
Men, women and children, moving forward 
to the open space before the Altar, perform 
their distinctive dance, to native instru- 
ments and music. Concluding, they re- 
tire to their former station. 

LIBERTY 
What further token of loyalty do you 
bring ? 

1 For any of the folk dances may be sub- 
stituted — according to the choice of the new 
citizens or the director of the ceremony — a 
native ballad, athletic game, rondel, choral, 
or any appropriate distinctive art or craft of 
the group represented. 



68 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 
CITIZEN 

I bring this flag of our Fatherland . . . 
Italy. 

LIBERTY 
How shall that express your loyalty 
to your new land? 

CITIZEN 

By token of this flag and the love we 
have long borne it, we dedicate here our 
love, labor and loyalty to the flag of 
our children's Fatherland — the Stars and 
Stripes of America. 

[Striding down the steps, he bears the flag of 
. . . Italy . . . toward the Altar, where 
he plants it, upright, on the steps below 
the American flag . 

,4s he does so, his group rise in their stadium 
seats where their Man Leader furls his 
. . . Italian . . . flag, while beside him 
the Child Leader unfurls the American 
flag and stands holding it.] 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 69 

THE . . . ITALIAN . . . LEADER 

[Cries aloud from the audience.] 
Long live our children's Fatherland 
— America ! 

THE . . . ITALIAN . . . GROUP 

[Shouting as they wave their little American 
flags.] 

America ! 

FIRST DUOLOGUE: VARIATIONS 

As the . . . Italian . . . Leader by the Altar 
resumes his original place in the ground 
circle, the Leader of another national 
group in costume [e.g. the Russian, 
Scandinavian, German, Greek, or which- 
ever group may follow next] moves from 
his station and, mounting the Altar steps 
with his flag, raises it toward the Spirit 
of Liberty above him. 

Thus, group by group, the Duologue, Folk 
Dance and Responses are repeated with 
such variations as may be provided by 
the racial temperament of each group; by 



70 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



the substitution of balladry or athletic 
game, etc., for the folk dance; by the 
omission altogether of that feature or its 
substitute; by the difference of native 
language in the Group Responses for 
Viva America ! [e.g. Vive PAmerique ! 
for the French, Es lebe Amerika ! for the 
German, etc.] ; or by whatever abbrevia- 
tion of these features may be deemed 
needful and appropriate. 
Following the foreign-born groups, the Ameri- 
can-born First Voters may also hold their 
feature of the ceremony, reference to 
which is made in the Preface and in the 
Appendix} 

The groups in the stadium are now no longer 
separately distinguished by their National 
flags, but are merged in their seats behind 
the row of standards from each of which 
floats the flag of America. 

At the response of the final group, the musi- 
cians begin to play the New World 
Hymn, which the chorus and the Leaders 
sing, joined by all the New Citizens.] 
1 See Appendix, page 91. 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 71 



THIRD HYMN 
HYMN OF THE NEW WORLD 1 

A star — a star in the west ! 
Out of the wave it rose : 

And it led us forth on a world-far quest ; 

Where the mesas scorched and the moor- 
lands froze 
It lured us without rest : 
With yearning, yearning — ah ! 

It sang [as it beckoned us] 

A music vast, adventurous — 
America ! 

A star — a star in the night ! 

Out of our hearts it dawned ! 
And it poured within its wonderful light ; 
Where our hovels gloomed and our hunger 
spawned 

1 See Appendix, page 92. 



72 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 

It healed our passionate blight : 
And burning, burning — ah! 
It clanged [as it kindled us] 
Of a freedom proud and perilous — 
America ! 

A star — a star in the dawn ! 

Bright from God's brow it gleams ! 
Like a morning star in ages gone 
With hallowed song its holy beams 

Urge us forever on : 

For chanting, chanting — ah ! 
It builds [as it blesses us] 
A union strong, harmonious — 
America ! 

[With the ceasing of this hymn, the Spirit of 
Liberty speaks again from the balcony.] 



FIFTH PROCLAMATION 



[With Distribution of Citizenship Papers and 
Hymn.] 

LIBERTY 
Citizens! You of many nations are 
now united in one nation. Dedicated 
henceforth to my service, you are thereby 
dedicated to democracy. But democracy 
has no privileged race or feudal border- 
land : it embraces the service of mankind. 
Therefore, equally and gladly, receive 
now from the hands of my servants, 
Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, 
and Benjamin Franklin — these papers, 
the tokens of your American Citizenship, 
admitting you to the self-governing fel- 
lowship of new-world pioneers. 

73 



74 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



[Below Thomas Jefferson rises and stands 
before the table, upon which the rolls of 
citizenship papers are laid by Pages who 
bring them from the background. 

On the right Jefferson hands these rolls to 
Benjamin Franklin, on the left to Alex- 
ander Hamilton. From their hands Boy 
Scouts — who mount the central steps — 
receive the papers and distribute them, 
through the several Leaders, to the assem- 
bled New Citizens. 

While they do so, the Spirit of America from 
the Altar and the Chorus 1 sing, to the band 
miasic, Walt Whitman's hymn of Ameri- 
can Pioneers.] 

FOURTH HYMN 
HYMN OF AMERICAN PIONEERS 1 

Have the elder races halted ? 
Do they droop and end their lesson, 
wearied there beyond the seas ? 

1 If the impersonator of America be a singer 
with splendid voice, this hymn, if desirable, 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 75 



We take up the task eternal, and the 
burden and the lesson, 

Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 



All the pulses of the world, 
Falling in, they beat for us, with the 

western movement beat ; 
Holding single or together, steady moving, 
all for us, 

Pioneers ! Pioneers ! 



O you daughters of the west ! 
O you young and elder daughters! O 

you mothers and you wives ! 
Never must you be divided, in our ranks 
you move united, 

Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 

may be led by America in solo, joined by the 
chorus in the refrain : 6 ' Pioneers ! Pioneers ! " 
See Appendix, page 92. 



76 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 

Not for delectations sweet ; 
Not the cushion and the slipper, not the 

peaceful and the studious ; 
Not the riches safe and palling, not for 
us the tame enjoyment, 
Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 

Do the f easters gluttonous feast ? 
Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have 

they locked and bolted doors ? 
Still be ours the diet hard, and the 
blanket on the ground, 

Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 

Has the night descended black ? 
Was the road of late so toilsome ? did we 

lag there on our way ? 
Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your 
tracks to pause oblivious, 
Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 77 

Till with sound of trumpet-peal, 
Far, far off the day-break call — hark! 

how clear I hear it wind ; 
Swift ! Spring forward to your places ! — 
Swift ! and bear the brunt of danger, 
Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 

[When the hymn is finished, the New Citizens 
meanwhile having all received their papers, 
above them from the balcony the Spirit of 
Liberty speaks again.] 



SIXTH PROCLAMATION 



LIBERTY 

Citizens! In this task eternal of our 
pioneering, Yesterday, To-day and To- 
morrow all are our task-mates. 

From the lips of Yesterday you have 
harkened the words of these your fellow- 
citizens. 

From lips of To-day harken now to 
one bringing a message for this age of 
your new citizenship, in the words of 
Woodrow Wilson, your loyal friend and 
twenty-eighth President. Your fellow- 
citizen . . . now brings you his message. 

[At this, a modern representative) Citizen, 
going to the steps of the civic Altar, reads 
there the following words of President 
Wilson.] 

78 



FOURTH ADDRESS 1 



REPRESENTATIVE CITIZEN 
[Reads.] 

Fellow-citizens : 

You have just taken an oath of al- 
legiance to the United States. Of alle- 
giance to whom? Of allegiance to no 

1 This excerpt from the address of Woodrow 
Wilson to the new citizens at Philadelphia on 
the 10th of May, 1915 — is here included as a 
living message of to-day admirably pertinent 
to the ceremony. It may be read, from the 
steps of the Altar, by the Leader of the First 
Voters, or by any representative citizen 
chosen to do so. Or, if necessary, there may 
be substituted for it speeches by representa- 
tive citizens such as the Governor, Mayor, 
Commissioner of Immigration, etc. In such 
case, the reference to the words of Woodrow 
Wilson will be omitted from the speech of 
Liberty, which will conclude as follows : 

79 



80 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



one, unless it be God; certainly not to 
those who temporarily represent this 
great government. You have taken an 
oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a 
great body of principles, to a great hope 
of the human race. 

You have said: "We are going to 
America, not only to earn a living, not 
only to seek the things which it was more 
difficult to obtain where we were born, 
but to help forward the great enterprises 

* 1 Your fellow citizen . . . the Governor 
. . . brings you now his message.' ' In like 
manner Liberty introduces whatever other 
modern speaker may address the gathering 
with the words : ' ' Your fellow citizen . . . the 
Mayor [or the Commissioner, etc.] . . . now 
brings you his message." Such modern 
speakers, if they enter the ground circle with 
those in symbolic or national costume, ap- 
propriately should be dressed [like the Leader 
of the First Voters] in academic gown [with 
hood of American colors] and should speak 
from the steps of the civic Altar. 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 81 



of the human spirit, to let men know 
that everywhere in the world there are 
men who will cross strange oceans and 
go where a speech is spoken which is 
alien to them, knowing that whatever 
the speech there is but one longing of 
the human heart, and that is liberty 
and justice;" and while you bring all 
countries with you, you come with a 
purpose of leaving all other countries 
behind you; bringing what is best of 
their spirit, but not looking over your 
shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what 
you intended to leave in them. 

I certainly would not be one even to 
suggest that a man cease to love the home 
of his birth and the nation of his origin. 
These things are very sacred, and ought 
not to be put out of your hearts, but it is 
one thing to love the place where you 

G 



82 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



were born and another thing to dedicate 
yourself to the place to which you go. 

You cannot dedicate yourselves to 
America unless you become with every 
purpose of your will thorough Americans. 
You cannot become thorough Americans 
if you think of yourselves in groups. 
America does not consist of groups. A 
man who thinks of himself as belonging 
to a particular national group in America 
has not yet become an American. And 
the man who goes among you to trade 
upon your nationality is no worthy son 
to live under the stars and stripes. 

For my urgent advice to you would 
be not only always to think first of 
America, but always also to think first of 
humanity. 

You who have just sworn allegiance to 
this great government were drawn across 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 83 



the ocean by some beckoning finger, by 
some belief, by some vision of a new kind 
of justice, by some expectation of a better 
kind of life. 

No doubt, you have been disappointed 
in some of us, and some of us are very 
disappointing. No doubt what you 
found here did not seem touched for you, 
after all, with the complete beauty of 
the ideal which you had conceived before- 
hand; but remember this, if we have 
grown at all poor in the ideal, you have 
brought some of it with you. A man 
does not go out to seek the thing that is 
not in him. A man does not hope for the 
thing that he does not believe in, and 
if some of us have forgotten what Amer- 
ica believed in, you, at any rate, im- 
ported in your own hearts a renewal of 
the belief. 



84 THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 



That is the reason that I, for one, 
make you welcome. If I have forgotten 
in any degree what America was intended 
for, I will thank God if you will remind 
me. I was born in America. You 
dreamed dreams of what America was 
to be, and I hope you brought the dreams 
with you. No man who does not see 
visions will ever realize any high hope or 
undertake any high enterprise, and just 
because you brought the dreams with 
you, America is more likely to realize 
the dreams such as you brought. 

So, if you come into this great nation, 
you will have to come voluntarily, seeking 
something that we have to give. All 
that we have to give is this : We cannot 
exempt you from work. We cannot 
exempt you from strife, the heart-break- 
ing burden of the struggle of the day 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 85 



that has come unto mankind everywhere. 
We cannot exempt you from the loads 
that you must carry ; we can only make 
them light by the spirit in which they are 
carried, because that is the spirit of hope, 
it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit 
of justice. 

Therefore, I like to come and stand 
in the presence of a great body of my 
fellow-citizens, whether they have been 
my fellow-citizens a long time or a short 
time, and drink, as it were, out of the 
common fountain with them, and go 
back and feel the sense of the living vi- 
tality of your hearts, and of those great 
ideals which have made America the 
hope of the world. 

[At the closing of the modern message, the 
Spirit of Liberty speaks again from the 
balcony to the assemblage.] 



SEVENTH PROCLAMATION 



LIBERTY 

Citizens ! You who came to my altar 
as separate groups depart now as a com- 
munity of Americans; you who came 
lonely and individual go forth in the 
fellowship of a common will — the will 
for justice and freedom. 

Here the past has spoken to you as 
the living present; here the present, 
measuring its standards and powers 
with the past, shapes these anew to create 
a more just and beautiful to-morrow. 

The joy of this task begins now; 
it requires your dreams and your labor 
in common; for so by your union you 
shall help to build the liberty and union 
of the world. 

86 



THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 87 



In this task of mightier federation, 
God Speed the United States of America ! 

[High up in the glowing balcony the Spirit of 
Liberty raises the flag of America above 
the assembled Citizens, who — with their 
Leaders bearing the American colors — 
depart in procession whence they came, 
singing the last stanza of the National 
Hymn.] 

SIXTH HYMN 

ALL THE ASSEMBLAGE 
Our fathers' God to thee 
Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing. 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light, 
Protect us with thy might, 
Great God, our King ! 



FINIS 



APPENDIX 



IMMIGRATION STATISTICS FOR 
AMERICA 

Number op Foreign Born 

Whites in Country . . 13,394,213 
Number ten years 

of age or over 

that cannot 

speak English 2,953,011 
Number that cannot Speak English 
Number of foreign 

born whites 21 

years and over 

that cannot 

speak English 2,565,013 
Number that are 

Illiterate . 1,650,361 
Foreign born 

whites ten years 

or over illiter- 
ate, i.e. cannot 

read or write in 

any language. 



90 



APPENDIX 



This is 3 per 
cent of native 
white popula- 
tion of country 
and 12.7 per cent 
of foreign born 
white popula- 
tion. 

Total number of 
males in country 
21 years and 

over . . . 26,999,151 

Number that are Attending School — 

i.e. are on the road to becoming 

Literate 
Total number of 

foreign born 

whites 21 years 

and over in 

country . . 11,627,714 
Number of foreign 

born whites 21 

years and over 

that attend 

school . . . 35,614 
Total number of 

foreign born 

whites between 

ages of 15 and 20 

in this country 932,274 



APPENDIX 



91 



Number of foreign 
born whites be- 
tween 15 and 20 
that attend 
school [11 %] . 102,639 
Number that are Naturalized 

Foreign born 

whites [24.6 %] 6,646,817 

Number that are 

naturalized . . 3,034,117 

Alien 2,266,535 

Citizenship not re- 
ported . . . 775,393 

This means that there are at the very least 
3,000,000 unnaturalized males over 21 years 
of age in the United States. The wives and 
children of these men are also aliens. It is 
therefore impossible to determine accurately 
the number of the unnaturalized. In many 
cases the unnaturalized man means an un- 
naturalized family of six or seven. 

These figures are those given by the 1910 
census. Since 1910 more than 5,000,000 im- 
migrants have been added to the population 
of the United States. 

FIRST VOTERS' CEREMONY 

For reasons given in the Preface, no word- 
ing or devising of this important feature is 



92 



APPENDIX j 



included in the present ritual. In case, how- 
ever, those who may perform the ritual shall 
feel the need of including in it a First Voters 
feature, the author will be glad to assist in 
providing such a feature, which may perhaps 
be incorporated in some further edition of this 
ritual. 

HYMN OP THE NEW WORLD 

The first two stanzas of this hymn comprise 
the Hymn of the World Adventurers in the 
author's "Saint Louis," A Civic Masque 
(Doubleday Page and Co.), the music for 
which, composed by Frederick S. Converse, 
is published by the H. W. Gray Co., 2 West 
45th St., New York, and is available in form 
for distribution to band musicians and choruses. 

HYMN OF AMERICAN PIONEERS 

Music for this hymn of Walt Whitman has 
been composed by Arthur Farwell, New York 
City. The words have been slightly adapted 
and abbreviated from their original form. 
As in the case of the Address of Washington 
and the Declaration of Independence (both of 
which have been stringently shortened to their 
time-limit essentials), it is hoped that the 
adaptation to terse ceremonial use will help 
to make more widely known a great American 
utterance. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



•"J^HE following pages contain advertisements 
of Macmillan books by the same author. 



A NEW BOOK BY PERCY MACKAYE 



A Substitute for War 

It is one of the few peace books which proposes a definite 
and positive substitute for war. It attracted wide attention 
when the article on which it is based was printed in the North 
American Review. 

Sistine Eve, and Other Poems 

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"... will place him among the most noteworthy of the 
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Jeanne D'Arc 

Cloth, decorated covers, gilt top, i2mo, $i.2j 

" A series of scenes animated at times by a sure, direct, and 
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The Canterbury Pilgrims 

Cloth, decorated covers, gilt top, i2mo, $1.25 

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— St. Paul Dispatch. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



PERCY MACKAYE'S NEW POEMS 



The Present Hour 

By PERCY MACKAYE 

Author of " The Scarecrow," " Sappho and Phaon," etc. 

Cloth , i2mo, $1.25 

"The Present Hour" is a vital expression of America in 
themes of war and peace. The first section (War) contains the 
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Europe. Few war-poems of the many published in this country 
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of Mr. Mackaye. Among them are " American Neutrality," 
" Peace," " Wilson," " Louvain," " Rheims," " The Muffled 
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etc. The second section (Peace) includes his widely read 
poems, " Goethals," " Panama Hymn," " School," " The Heart 
in the Jar," and other representative work. The volume is an 
important addition to Mr. Mackaye's long list of books and 
a valuable contribution to the poetry of our time. 

" The first book of poetry, coming out of the present Euro- 
pean conflict, to strike home with conviction. ... * School ' 
is perhaps the most distinctly American poem of the present 
time." — Boston Transcript. 

" There is much that is fine, vigorous, picturesque and 
genuinely imaginative in this collection . . . and one responds 
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pathy . . . his voice is one of the few today worth hearing." 

— Bellman. 

"... strikes much deeper root than the majority of the work 
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" The volume as a whole contains Mr. Mackaye's best, most 
authentically inspired poetry, and it is poetry of which all who 
speak the English tongue may be more than a little proud." 
— Cincinnati Inquirer. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



OTHER WORKS BY PERCY MACKAYE 

A Garland to Sylvia 

Cloth, gilt top, i2mo, $ 1.23 
"... contains much charming poetry." — New York Post. 

Sappho and Phaon 

Cloth, decorated covers, gilt top, i2mo, $ 1.25 
" Mr. Mackaye's work is the most notable addition that has 
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dignified, eloquent, passionate, imaginative, and thoroughly 
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Masterfully written with deep pathos and unmistakable poetic 
power." — New York Evening Post. 

Mater : An American Study in Comedy 

Cloth, decorated covers, gilt top, i2mo, $ I.2J 
" Mr. Mackaye's Mater is a thing of pure delight. It is 
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dialogue throughout shows Mr. Mackaye at his best : there is in 
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Book News Monthly. 

Fenris, the Wolf 

Cloth, decorated covers, gilt top, i2mo, $ 1.23 
*' A drama that shows triple greatness. There is the supreme 
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The Scarecrow 

Cloth, decorated covers, gilt top, i2mo, $ I.2J 
" A delightful and significant piece of philosophical satire; . . . 
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our literature." — New York Mail. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



The Complete Poetical Works of 
Geoffrey Chaucer 

Now first put into Modern English by 

JOHN S. P. TATLOCK 

Author of " The Development and Chronology of Chaucer's 
Works," etc. 

AND 

PERCY MACKAYE 

Author of " The Canterbury Pilgrims," "Jeanne D'Arc/' etc. 

New and cheaper edition, with illustrations in black and 
white 

Cloth, 8vo, $2.00 net ; leather, boxed, $J.OO 

The publication of The Modern Reader's Chaucer is a pro- 
nounced success. Presenting as it does the stories of the great 
bard in language that twentieth century readers unversed in Old 
English can understand and enjoy, it opens up a rich store of 
fascinating literature. This cheaper edition of the work is de- 
signed with the purpose of still further increasing its usefulness. 
It departs in no way from the original except in the matter of 
illustrations, all of which are rendered in black and white. The 
binding, too, is simpler, being uniform with the binding of the 
one volume edition of The Modern Reader's Bible. The text 
remains unchanged. 

" The version not only maintains the spirit and color, the rich 
humor and insight into human nature, of the original, but is of 
itself a literary delight." — The Argonaut. 

" Those who have at times attempted to struggle through the 
original text with the aid of a glossary, will welcome this new 
form." — Graphic, Los Angeles. 

" Chaucer is now readable by hundreds where before he was 
not accessible to dozens. The book is a veritable mine of good 
stories. . . . The volume can be heartily recommended to all 
lovers of the lasting and the permanent in literature." — Ken- 
tucky Post. 



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Publishers 



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New York 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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